Sloth
by kepulver
Summary: G1 Gears has to deal with Huffer's indecisiveness about Pipes, and does so in his usual kind and gentle manner.


**Author's Note: ** "Sloth" according to the article on the 7 Deadly Sins used to mean an "unwillingness to act" which was the inspiration for this story. Also, a vorn is a Cybertronian measure of time from the Marvel comics that is equal to 83 Earth-years.

**Sloth:**

Gears looked up at the sound of running footsteps just in time to see Huffer duck into the room.

"I'm not here!" Huffer rushed over to a storage cabinet, threw open the door and stepped inside. "You haven't seen me!"

"Okay," Gears said. "This one of those uncertainty things or did you scratch Sunstreaker's paint job?"

Huffer opened the cabinet door and glared at Gears. "Very funny," he said. "Pipes is looking for me! I told Windcharger to tell him I was outside but that won't keep him for long!"

Gears walked over to the cabinet, leaning against the doorframe. "The kid mad at you?" he asked. "Doesn't sound like him. What'd you do? Steal one of his toasters?"

"No!" Huffer said, trying to shut the door.

"You owe him money?" Gears asked, holding the door open.

"No!" Huffer again tried to shut the door, without much success.

"So, why are you hiding from him?" Gears shifted his weight, keeping the door wedged open.

Huffer sighed, one of his explosive why-does-the-world-hate-me-so sighs. "He likes me!"

Gears cocked his head to one side. "Oh, well, that makes _perfect_ sense then. He likes you so you're hiding in my storage cabinet. Gotcha."

"It's more complicated than that!" Huffer wailed. "He follows me around. When he's not on duty, he's coming around the workshop to see if there's anything he can do to help -- and there isn't because all he knows how to do is fight. And he keeps wanting me to tell him all about what Cybertron was like before we left on the Ark!"

"He Iwants/I to listen to _you_ talk about Cybertron?" Gears said. "You're right, he's a loony alright. Probably dangerous. I'll talk to Wheeljack about making us a net. Maybe Ratchet'll be able to correct this glitch he's got before it's too late."

"Gears! I'm serious!" Huffer thumped the inside of the cabinet with his fist.

"So am I!" Gears said. "You could bore rocks with your stories, Huffer. We gotta save the kid!"

"Ha, ha," Huffer growled. "If you're not going to help me, let go of the door and let me out. I'll go hide someplace else."

"The kid likes you, what do you need help with?" Gears leaned against the doorframe, blocking Huffer's exit. "As I recall, you have a pretty good grasp of how these things work."

"It's not that!" Huffer said, his voice almost a squeak. "I just -- I don't get it! Why me?"

"Who knows?" Gears said. "Maybe whiners turn him on. Or he's got a thing for orange. What's it matter?"

"It matters because it doesn't make sense! He's a warrior, I'm an engineer! What could we possibly have in common?" Huffer groaned and slumped back into the cabinet. "What am I gonna do?"

"Knowing you?" Gears said. "Probably gripe and moan about it until I get annoyed and throw you out. Or weld you in there."

Huffer sighed again. "If it was you, what would you do?"

"Me? I'd probably drag him into a storage cabinet with me," Gears said. "Then find out what we had in common."

"Gears!" The outrage in Huffer's voice made Gears smirk.

"What?" he countered. "He's a good-looking kid. A little dim, but what we'd be doing wouldn't require a massive intellect. Just an ability to engage in close-quarters maneuvering."

Huffer's optics glowed angrily in the shadows cast by the interior of the cabinet. "You wouldn't!" Huffer said, voice indignant. "Would you?"

"Sure, why not? Heck, where is he? I'll take him off your hands," Gears said. "Think the storage room on C-Deck is free?"

"No!"

"You're right, it's pretty popular," Gears said, shifting his weight as if physically avoiding Huffer's anger. "Should talk to Prowl about setting up some kind of a rotating schedule or something."

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Huffer snapped.

"No kidding," Gears said. "So, you Ido/I want Pipes?"

"I -- I never said that!"

"So, you _don't_ want him?"

"I didn't say that either!"

It was Gears's turn to sigh. "Huffer, the kid likes you. Why? I have no idea, but he does. And you -- in your own spastic way -- seem to like him too. So, what's the harm in hooking up with him?"

"I don't want to hurt him," Huffer said. "He's so different -- you've heard the stories about how things are back home now. It's like he's from another world entirely."

"So, instead of talking to him, you're going to hide out and avoid him like he's got cosmic rust. I'm sure that will make him feel all kinds of not hurt. Huffer, just Italk/I to the kid!"

Huffer's sigh this time was short and tired-sounding, rather than his usual gale-force dramatic pay-attention-to-me efforts. "It's too soon."

"Too soon? What? After us?" Gears scoffed. "Please! Huffer, what we had was nice while it lasted but it was a fling, not a lasting romance. And certainly nothing that requires a waiting period before we move on."

"You wouldn't be mad?" Huffer asked.

"Only if you insist on using me as an excuse to avoid Pipes," Gears said. "I need this cabinet for storing things other than the Universe's Most Insecure Minibot."

"He's so young, though," Huffer said. "He's barely over six thousand vorn."

"So? You're only eighteen thousand vorn older than he is. This time you get to be the wise, worldly mech who knows how everything works," Gears said.

"Instead of the blind leading the blind, huh?" Huffer chuckled, then grew serious. "I'm scared, Gears."

"Who isn't? Love is scary under the best of circumstances -- which these ain't. But it's worth it and you know it," Gears said. "If we give up on being able to love each other, we might as well stop fighting because that means the war's stolen the one thing that makes us different from the Decepticons."

Huffer gave Gears a look. "That's…"

"A load of mushy slag that I'll deny saying if you repeat it to anyone else in this base," Gears interrupted. "Now get outta here."


End file.
